Support stands used by carpenters for sawhorses, stands used by painters for supporting a working platform, stands used for supporting temporary work tables, and similar structures are usually bulky and irregular in form so that a considerable space is needed for their transportation or storage. Sawhorses comprising a horizontally disposed member supported by legs are well known in the art. To form a stand, typically two sawhorses are positioned with the horizontal members of the sawhorses being parallel, and then a workpiece, such as a four by eight foot sheet of plywood, is placed on a top surface of the sawhorses. The workpiece may then be used as a work surface or it may be processed, such as by cutting or sawing. Desirably for good sawing, a rotary saw blade of the usual type of hand held rotary saw projects a short distance below a lower surface of the plywood during sawing. Care must be taken to avoid passing the saw over the sawhorses so that the blade will not cut the sawhorses. Also, once the cutting begins, the plywood tends to fall between the sawhorses unless there is assistance by an auxiliary support, such as a prop or a person holding the plywood.
Recent progress has been made in the art, for example, see U.S. Pat. No. 5,010,978 issued Apr. 30, 1991 to Jimmerson, entitled "Apparatus and Method For a Sawing Stand". In this device, three frames are hinged together to form a "Z" shape, and the hinges allow the frames to collapse for transportability while also allowing the device to be free standing. The device allows wooden boards or the like to be placed on top of each frame to act as cutting guards to prevent a saw from cutting the frames when sawing a workpiece. This device is limited, however, in that it can only form the one shape because of the attaching hinges, and is further limited in that all three pieces must be transported at one time since they are connected by the hinges.
More typical of the prior art, however, is U.S. Pat. No. 4,574,917 issued Mar. 11, 1986 to Stoddard, entitled "Three-Piece Knock-Down Sawhorse". This device uses three pieces to form a single sawhorse, and two sawhorses are needed to support a large workpiece, such as a sheet of plywood or drywall. This device is also limited, in that six pieces, three for each sawhorse, are needed to form a complete workstand, and it is further limited in that each sawhorse has four supporting legs, thus, requiring a level surface for each of the sawhorses used to form a workstand.
It is thus apparent that there is a need in the art for an improved support stand that is formed from a single panel type. A still further need is for such a support stand that can be formed into a variety of shapes to accommodate different types of workpieces. The present invention meets these and other needs.